


Caffeine

by ActualRealLiveFiveYearOld



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: College!Arin, College!Dan, M/M, SickDan, collegeAU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 20:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7237330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualRealLiveFiveYearOld/pseuds/ActualRealLiveFiveYearOld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off of a Tumblr Prompt:<br/>He poured Monster into his coffee and said, "I'm totally gonna die after drinking this."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caffeine

Arin slammed his hand onto his phone in an attempt to silence the alarm, too preoccupied with his annoyance to worry about being delicate.   
Who the  _hell_  signs up for a 7 a.m. class?  
He does, apparently.   
Deciding to use the fuck-it adjustment, Arin didn't change from his sweatpants. He threw on a different shirt, though, because the pizza-stained one he had on was like... grossly sweaty. He wrinkled his nose as he grabbed his shower bag. He only needed to brush his teeth and put on deodorant before the class, and he planned on bringing a blanket. It was freezing in New Jersey, and he wasn't going to traverse the campus without one.  
"Ross, hey. I'm gonna go to class, so don't freak out if I'm not here."  
He shook his friend, who was lying in the other bed. The boy turned towards him, peeking out from under his light hair.  
"Arin, I don't care where the fuck you're going. Don't ever wake me up before nine again."   
His accent was thick with exhaustion. Ross spent a lot of time with his girlfriend without telling Arin, so he didn't know why he felt the need to tell him where he was going.   
"Good morning to you too, baby girl." He flicked the Australian's forehead, and wasn't even granted the satisfaction of a groan. He was asleep. Arin grabbed a water bottle and left the room quietly.  
The trip in the bathroom was uneventful, minus the guy that wandered in behind him. He was silent in his sock-clad feet, and startled the boy when he appeared from nowhere. He had unruly, frizzy hair that covered the rest of his features. Arin could only see a strong jaw and cleft chin from below it. The dude didn't even have pants on, just blue boxers and a faded Megaman t-shirt.  
"Hey, dude." Arin tried for a friendly introduction. The other guy responded with a nod, shifting like he was asleep on his feet.  
"Yo man, you still with us?" Arin waved his hand in front of the other boy's face, chuckling.   
"Yeah, sorry bro. Just... long night, y'know?" The guy pinched the bridge of his nose, and Arin realized he was like, super hungover.   
"Oh damn, dude," Arin lowered his voice, which had been pretty loud.   
"Here, you probably didn't get enough." Arin handed him the water bottle, deciding against the usual toss that he would have opted for.   
"Fucking sweet, man. Thanks." He grabbed it and turned the cap, immediately draining about half of it.  
"No problem. I'll leave you to it."  
  
Arin walked to class sluggishly, watching the fog turn to dew on the field. Holding the blanket tighter around his shoulders, he wished he had coffee or something. Or Monster. Yeah, Monster.   
He stopped by the cafeteria, and bought a couple and threw all but one into his bag. He cracked it open when he flopped down in a seat near the back of the auditorium. The professed hadn't made an appearance yet, but he WAS a half an hour early. He liked being punctual. It made for more time to goof off. He pulled his sketchbook out of his bag and brought his knees to his chest as a makeshift work space. The Monster was precariously balanced on the tiny desk attached to the seat, and he was careful to fold his long legs to avoid tipping it over.   
What to draw, what to draw?  
 He started off with his go-to, small cartoons of the type of cat he wanted. After the basic bone structure was down, he began to sketch the actual shape of the tiny legs. He let his mind wander back to the morning's previous events.   
He hadn't seen that guy before.   
He definitely would have recognized the hair, or at least the cleft chin. Maybe even the general lankiness of his figure.  
Arin flipped the page with a scraping sound and decided to try his hand at realism.  
He structured what he assumed his face looked like. He must have chiseled features to match the strong jaw! So he drew what, he admitted, was a borderline-homosexual-idealistic guy. He became so absorbed with forceful pencil markings that he almost missed the figure that the drawing was supposed to be crashing into the chair next to him.   
"Hey, bro. Hope you don't mind, I thought I'd hang with a familiar face."  
Arin was startled out of his little world.

The guy looked  _nothing_  like the picture. Granted, he had the cheekbones of a god. But that was the only thing Arin could match between the drawing and this guy.  
"Hey, bro... you still with us?" The boy laughed as he waved his hand in front of Arin's face, mimicking him.  
"Yeah, sorry. Just... in the zone." Arin blinked a couple times to refocus on the guy. He looked downright goofy. The smile was crooked, and it seemed as if he had to grow into his nose.   
Damn, he was perfect.  
Arin shook that thought out of his head. He liked girls, dammit.   
"Aw, I totally get it. When I'm writing music, man... no one can even get near me."  
He wrote music?! Arin knew this was going to be trouble.   
"You- you write music?"  
"Yeah, man. I'm majoring in Music Theory. And advertising. But mostly music."  
Those two things didn't seem to go together, but Arin let it slide.  
"You draw? That's cool as shit! Can I see?" After noting his hesitation, the boy backed off a bit.  
"You don't have to if you don't wanna. It's all cool, bro."  
Arin was relieved at his laid back answer. He wasn't huge on sharing his work. The guy was silent for a second, then started again.   
"I'm Dan. Dan Avidan. I'll be your annoyance for today."  
Arin didn't mind that one bit. That lecture hall suddenly got a lot brighter. "Arin Hanson. A pleasure to be working with you." He smirked at him, reaching out to shake his hand. "Are you new here?"  
"Yeah, actually. Transferred late, and the like. I'm a junior."  
"'I'm a sophomore. Where'd you transfer from?"  
"I was studying abroad in France for a while. I thought I'd come back to my hometown to finish."  
"Dude, France sounds awesome. I wanna go to Japan one day."  
"Yeah, I love to travel. Not now, though. I've gotta finish up school," Dan sighed, "Which is going to be hard if I have to be conscious this early every day."   
"Yeah, thank God for caffeine." Arin clinked his can of monster to Dan's paper coffee cup.  
"Shit, you've got Monster?" Dan's eyes lit up.   
"Yeah, man. I drink it all the time."  
"Do you have any more?"  
"Yeah. Man, are you gonna keep stealing my drinks?" He chuckled as he handed Dan one of the cans from his bag. Dan popped the top off of his coffee cup, staring at Arin's hesitance.  
He smiled and poured most of the can into his coffee.  
"I'm going to die after drinking this."  
He immediately slugged it down, stopping and gagging after four seconds.  
"That curdled the  _moment_  the Monster hit the coffee."  
"Oh, come on dude. That's sick."  
Dan offered it to him, and Arin wrinkled his nose at the prospect.   
"I feel so  _pumped_!" Dan's eyes were wide, and he showed Arin a wide, toothy grin.   
"You're going to be sick."  
"I know man, but I feel like the world is on fast forward." He was fidgeting in his seat, as antsy as could be. The professor walked in, setting his things down. Arin cast a sympathetic look to Dan, as he knew that sitting still for two hours was going to be awful.   
\---  
It was a quarter of the way through the lecture when Dan kicked his bag out of the way and  _ran_  out of the room. No one even looked at him, but Arin watched him the entire time.   
"Oh, god... he's probably sick." Arin muttered to himself, putting his notebook away. He got up in a much calmer manner, following the boy out the door by seconds. He speed-walked through the hallway, and went into the nearest bathroom.   
"Dan? You in here?"  
He heard a muffled groan, and a weak voice.  
"Yeah, I'm over he-" he retched, and Arin winced. Poor bastard.  
"How ya doing, buddy?" He spoke slowly, trying to keep his distance and still be comforting.   
"Not so good, Arin... not so good."  
"Was it from the coffee?"   
"Of course it was from the" He gagged, and audibly swallowed, "-fucking coffee."  
Arin chuckled, and approached the open stall that Dan was kneeling in.  
"I know we just met, but I'm gonna hold your hair back, alright?"  
Dan nodded gratefully. Arin gathered up his afro and held it away from his face. The back of his neck was burning, so Arin got one of the cans from his bag.   
"I'm gonna put something cold on your neck, so just... don't look at the can." He pressed the can to his neck, and he tensed up before relaxing.   
"Thanks, man. I'm so-" Dan leaned over to vomit into the toilet, which prompted Arin to look away.   
"Dude, someone probably had their ass on this seat..." Dan whined.   
"It's fine. Just get all this over with so you can go back to your dorm."  
He rubbed Dan's back as he retched, looking back up at him.  
"My bag, it's still in the classroom."  
"What's your dorm number?"  
"5A."  
"Shit, you're kidding me! We're neighbors, bro."  
"No way..." Dan looked as though he were trying to distract himself, so he started talking.  
"Do you wanna look at my sketchbook?" Arin pulled it out, and Dan held it delicately. He flipped to a safe page, one with the munchkin sketches.  
"These are so cool! Look at the cats!"  
"Yeah, I want one when I get out of school. Can't think of what to name them, though."  
"What about Mochi? You wanna go to Japan one day, right?"  
Arin turned the name over in his head, and it fit.  
"Alright, are you done throwing up, becau-"  
Dan stopped on a page that was crumpled at the edges.   
"Dude, this is awesome."  
It was homosexual-idealistic Dan.   
"Who even  _is_  that? He's handsome as shit."  
Arin didn't dare confess, instead he just shrugged.   
"Okay, sickie. We've gotta get you back to your dorm. Can you walk?"  
"Yeah, I think so." Dan stood up shakily, and it scarily reminded Arin of a newborn deer. Dan stumbled, and Arin caught him before he fell.  
"I'll just walk with you."  
He slung Dan's arm over his shoulder, walking him towards the male dorms. Dan made sure to trip over every sidewalk crack, and Arin didn't mind. It was nice to spend time with the dude, even if he could barely stand both times he's seen him.  
In less than four hours.  
God, this guy was a mess.   
They arrived at the dorm, and Dan collapsed on the unmade bed. From what Arin could gather, his roommate was Barry Kramer. Arin had had a coups group projects with the guy, he was dependable. He could take care of this idiot until he was better.   
"Arin, I'm just gonna go to bed. There's beer in the mini fridge and shit if you want."  
He rolled over on the bed, trying to block out the sun and all things lively. It was only around 8:34, and the school was waking up.   
"Dan, you can't sleep in skinny jeans and a leather jacket."  
"Says who? You aren't my dad."  
"You can call me Daddy if you want, but you need to wear something else."  
Dan grumbled and tore off his jacket, tossing it to Arin. Not even bothering his presence, Dan slid off the skinny jeans as well.   
"You're just gonna stand there and watch?"  
"I have an older brother. Guys without pants don't scare me."  
Dan gave a lopsided smile at that.  
"I just have an older sister. It would probably weird me out if a guy I just met took his pants off."  
"Yeah, but I think holding your hair back while you threw up replaced the whole 'buying you dinner' situation."  
"That's true."  
"Speaking of," Arin stepped towards the bed where Dan was sitting up, cradling a pillow.   
"Turn around. I'll pull your hair back."  
Dan turned obediently, wincing as Arin ran his hand through tangles in his thick hair. He abandoned the project for a moment and went into the bathroom.   
"A-ha! I thought Kramer would use a brush."  
He was wielding the hairbrush in a victorious manner, along with a spray bottle of water.   
"I'll get your hair brushed out for you."  
\--  
Arin was good at this. Dan's hair was tangle-free and pulled back into a slick ponytail, showing off his sharp cheekbones and chin.   
Arin shook that from his mind and started towards the door.   
"I'll gonna be next door if you need me. I'm just gonna take the day off."  
Dan nodded and pressed his face into the pillow. He gave a silent thumbs up that he let drop when the door fell into its place.  
  
Dan awoke three hours later, feeling crappier than when he was vomiting. Next to his bed was his bag, having been retrieved from the auditorium.  
A note from Arin included his phone number and an explanation, along with a message telling him to stop by his room.   
Dan grabbed his blanket and pulled it around his shoulders for added comfort. He trekked the seven feet between his and Arin's door and knocked on it quietly. He probably looked a mess, but he excused himself due to how shitty he felt.   
Arin opened the door a crack, but let it fall open upon seeing his visitor.  
"Dan, how're you doing?"  
"I think I've got more than congealed coffee fighting me right now."  
Arin nodded.  
"So what's up? The note said to drop by."  
"Oh, you got it! Here, come inside."  
He walked inside and was greeted with a table set for two. Chicken soup was in mismatched bowls on the table, along with an orange juice-ginger ale drink at one of them.   
"I thought I should get you a meal," Arin explained. "You know, because you took off your pants."  
Dan rolled his eyes. He was still in his Megaman shirt and boxers, suddenly feeling really self-conscious.   
"You have to eat. It's easy on the stomach, and it'll help you feel better. You lost a lot of fluid and stuff." Arin pushed Dan towards one of the bowls, picking it up and walking them both to a couch that was offset in the dorm.   
He turned on the TV and sat the bowls on the coffee table, sitting and patting the seat next to him. Dan followed and threw himself next to him, the comforter still wrapped around him. They watched shitty reality shows and ate soup until Dan was snoring softly and leaning on Arin's shoulder. Arin smiled, and put his arm around the cute upperclassmen's shoulders, pulling him close.  
He liked girls, but fuck it.   
Today, he liked Dan.

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to leave a review, or put any AUs or prompts that you want to see in the comments.  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
